


The Lady in the Woods

by Get Dunked On (LittleKnownArtist)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Puns, F/M, Fluffy, cabin in the woods au, divorce mention, mild alcohol use, talk of dead children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-06-20 23:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15544998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleKnownArtist/pseuds/Get%20Dunked%20On
Summary: AU. Toriel is a lonely monster living in the woods in the far north, and Sans is working as a bored/lost park ranger while researching polar magnetism who accidentally wanders onto her property one day to find this giant, beautiful woman chopping wood, and decides to axe her for directions. AU from tumblr.





	1. can i axe you for directions?

“skeletons don’t get bug bites, cougars won’t attack prey with no meat, skeletons can’t be effected by poisonous plants, they said. it’ll be fine, they said. the job’s perfect for you, they said.” The grumblings of an annoyed skeleton were nearly drowned out by the sounds of him kicking away the blackberry vines he had been ensnared in. The thorns dug into Sans’s clothes and scraped at his bone underneath. Sure, he didn’t have skin to scratch up, but the thorns still hurt. He grunted as he finally ripped free of the bushes, except a long thread from one of his socks, which he sliced away with the knife he’d used to cut the vines. His sock was ruined, so he’d have to survive the rest of his shift with the one cold ankle. It was bitterly cold up here, and sure, he didn’t have skin for frostbite to settle on, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t flat out die from the cold. His joints weren’t locking up yet, so he wasn’t in any danger. He could just teleport back to the station if he was, though.

Again, he thought of what else he could be doing with a perfectly good Saturday back home in Seattel. Watching reruns of that stupid cooking show. Skyping with Al, playing Fortnight. Annoying his brother. Well, he could still annoy his brother from their tiny apartment in Deadcow (what a name for a town). _Not on a perfectly good Saturday morning though._ No, he had to be getting tangled up in fucking thorns and veering off the marked paths, smelling like whatever frozen fungus he had sat in earlier on.

“shoulda taken the job at the cannery…” he muttered one last time, sheathing the knife. He sighed then took more careful steps down what he _had_ thought was a marked path, which was looking more and more like just some animal trail. He pulled out the paper map and turned it a few times, trying to make heads or tails of his current position. Apparently, the Satellite GPSs that they had were only for senior members, probably because they wanted to kill off the rookies for whatever reason, under the guise of giving them _experience_ in traversing the woods. Plus, his compass did jack shit this far north. Everything was fine. Even if it had started to snow.

* * *

 

He heard something strange up ahead, and he paused. Sure, a cougar or bear wouldn’t want him to eat, but they still could want him dead if they had young. Did they still have babies with them at this time of year? He listened closely for a second, finally deciding the sound wasn’t created by a wild animal. Maybe there were illegal campers up ahead? He wouldn’t bust their chops or anything, just check in on them to make sure they got their garbage picked up, and maybe see if they knew where the hell he was...what kind of numbskull camps in the middle of Autumn in Canaska anyways?

As he approached, he saw that the sound was coming from what was looking like a rather large clearing. Was he near a riverbed? He hadn’t seen such large clearings this deep into the woods yet. Weird. He climbed up the slight hill to see into the clearing, and there, he saw something he hadn’t expected; another monster. A huge monster. They had to be at least seven feet tall. Horns, long ears and white fur shown where the flannel shirt they wore ended. In this weather, their fur must be what was keeping them cozy enough to roll their sleeves past their forearms. They swung the axe back down with the force to cleanly splice the log with just the one hit. They had rather powerful looking arms, Sans noted. Strong and thick. Would probably give crushing hugs.

Well, that last one was a random thought.

The figure turned to gather the pile of busted-up logs and Sans noted that this monster had a kindly face. She looked like someone who wouldn’t mind giving directions. He stepped out into the clearing, walking up behind the monster woman, at a good enough distance to where if she wasn’t a nice as she looked, he could book it out of there.

“hey, sorry, but do ya mind if i _axe_ you for directions?” He emphasized the word ‘axe’ perhaps a little too much as he watched the woman startle and spin right around. She looked over him at first, before glancing back down, clearly expecting a taller person.

* * *

 

Toriel nearly dropped the firewood she had been holding as she heard the low voice from behind her. discovering it was a skeleton looking up at her wearing one of the ranger uniforms she was familiar with immediately put her more at ease. He was a rather small skeleton, and he looked up at her with a lazy smile, if a little apologetic. She shuffled the wood into one arm as she tried to process his words.

“Pardon?” she asked, forcing a slight chuckle into her voice. The apprehension disappeared from his smile, and he stuffed his hands into his coat pockets.

“do ya mind if i _axe—_ ” he tilted his head towards where she had stuck her axe into the log, “you for directions?” She chuckled genuinely at that. She observed the way his ranger uniform was rather disheveled, with a piece of blackberry vine stuck to the bottom of one pantleg, and dead leaves and snow stuck to the top of his ill-fitting cap. She smirked at him.

“I _wood_ not mind at all.” She lifted the bundle of wood to emphasize, but it wasn’t needed as he had already let out a bark of laughter, probably not expecting that response. She set down the wood as he pulled the map from his pocket and handed it off to her. She smiled at him before she went to look at the map, noticing the apprehensive expression had returned.

“Is there something wrong?”

He scratched at his skull, adjusting his cap.

“uh…this might be invasive, but do you live here? i thought that you weren’t supposed to live or even camp this far into the reserve…”

Toriel blinked.

“Oh dear, you must be very lost if you think you are still in the reserve’s perimeter.” Toriel laughed lightly, taking the map over onto her porch and sitting down.

“My family has owned the acres around here for many generations, you are about two acres deep into my property.”

The skeleton looked sheepish for a moment before shrugging and going over to the larger monster to see about his coordinates. He was pretty far off, but with her help in backtracking, it seems he had, as he presumed, followed an animal trail when the path broke a little over a mile into his scheduled round. When the skeleton seemed certain of her directions it had started snowing again, and she heard him sigh as he stood. He wished her well, but she caught him with a hand around his wrist before he could take a second step.

“It is snowing again, are you sure you want to leave right yet?” She blinked down at the skeleton, watching him tilt his head to the side.

“as much as i’d love to slack off, there’s a checkpoint I gotta _check_ off before my shift ends,” the small monster said with a shrug, “’sides, skeletons are _too cool_ for frostbite, having no skin and all.” He winked at her, and Toriel felt a little heat come to her cheeks. She knew times had changed, but when she was growing up, people only winked if they were flirting. She shook this off and proceeded to offer him something warm to eat.

“uh, nah, y’ain’t gotta—” but his voice cut off as she walked back into her cabin. She returned with a thermos, the contents of which she had heated quickly with some fire magic.

“Here you are. I understand skeletons are resistant to the cold, but surely you would appreciate some warm food for your hike, yes?” She offered the thermos again, pressing it against his hand.

“i…i appreciate that, yeah…”

* * *

 

In the days following, a thick blanket of snow had covered the grounds. Her chickens were sleeping in that day, cozy in their winterized coop, but the sun was nearly down again.

“Does it feel like a lazy day to you?” she whispered to the chickens as she exited their coop, watching them finally stir for the food she put out for them.

She heard a noise from the edge of her property and left the coop then to go investigate, it almost sounded like an electrical noise. As she tromped around the coop and continued further towards her house, she heard footsteps, light, but large, possibly a lynx. She prepared a fireball to spook it off if that was the case, but it did sound strangely bipedal…as she came around the side of her house, she saw a surprising, but not unwelcome guest, falling face-first into the snow.

“Oh dear!” She rushed over to the small figure, immediately plucking him out of the snow under the arms. She was surprised by the weight of him; incredibly light, then again, he was all bones aside from the gear on him.

He wiped the snow from his face before smiling up at the larger monster.

“i guess you could say i really _fell_ for you, there” he said with a chuckle, eyelights darting around as if he had noticed what he had said. Toriel laughed as well, seeing that he was perfectly fine, enough to be embarrassed by accidental flirtation. That happens sometimes with jokes. She set him back down in the snow, noting that he was wearing oversized snowshoes, which had probably tripped him up. For inexperienced snowshoers, they could take some getting used to.

“so, uh…anyways…” he started as he seemed transfixed by a snowman in the distance, “i never did thank you for the soup, but i thought i’d return this.” He pulled the thermos she had sent him off with out of his pack.

“Oh!” She had completely forgotten she had given it to him, she explained.

“probably not the best idea to just give things to any random stranger that passes through,” he said, browbone raised.

“I’ll have you know that I do not get very many visitors.” She said this with an annoyed expression before she sighed, breaking it with a smile. There was something wistful about her smile. She truly did not have many visitors. None that could speak, anyway. There was a friendly raven that knew exactly two phrases, but he was not much for company.

Sans shrugged, accepting that for an answer. Toriel asked about the snowshoes, and Sans explained that yes, this was his second time attempting to walk in them. He was on a slightly different route thanks to the winter conditions, but even with the shorter route, he still felt exhausted from walking in the deep snow. Toriel supposed that one as small as him would have a rather difficult traversing the snow.

“I am sorry if this is rude, but you are not originally from around here, are you?” She asked after a few minutes of discussing snowshoes. He had a very slight accent, and he seemed curious about the time that the sun set during the autumn. He rolled his shoulders.

“Yeah, well…originally me and my brother are from Seattel.”

“Hm...that is quite a ways south. You are here with your brother?”

He nodded.

“What made you decide to come all the way up here?”

The skeleton tapped a gloved knuckle against his chin, looking down in thought.

“it’s…sort of a long story.” Nonetheless, Toriel decided, it was one she wanted to hear. She had such little company that any points of interest she deemed worthy of exploring. Plus, skeletons were a rare sight, even in the cities, where most of the monsters congregated. A sharp wind came through, and Toriel realized she could just barely make out the ranger mark on his hat, as it was very dark.

“Come, come, let us go inside. It seems silly to stand out in the dark and cold to carry on a conversation.”

She lead the way to her cabin door, looking back when she had reached it and had not heard footsteps following her in. She looked back at him, and he had his hands stuffed in his pockets, head tilted, expression unreadable.

“You should probably go back to work, yes? It is getting rather dark.”

The skeleton shook his head.

“already made it to the checkpoint, just gotta _check_ back at the station sometime before six and i’m golden…” Toriel didn’t comment on the reuse of that particular pun, “it’s just…are you sure i can come in?”

“Oh…It is already three, are you sure you can make it back to the station in that amount of time?” She tilted her head as the skeleton chuckled at that.

“well, now that i know the area better, i got a _shortcut_ that gets me back to the station in no time flat.” He winked again. She didn’t quite understand the emphasis on the word “shortcut” but she ignored it.

“Yes, please come in, out of the cold. I would very much like to hear this ‘long story’ if you would be willing to tell it. She watched the lights in his eyes brighten ever-so-slightly as his grin stretched. He nodded and shuffled his way up behind her.


	2. happy to meat you

“yeah papyrus got a job out at the docks, fixing up the machinery so it doesn’t rust up too badly over the winter. it ain’t easy work, but he seems to enjoy it.” Toriel handed him a cup of hot chocolate as she listened to him go on about his brother. She could tell those two were close, it almost made her envious, since her relationship with her brother was so strained. She hadn’t even spoken to him in, what, ten years? The way the skeleton talked about his brother, she could tell he didn’t mind oversharing in the form of gushing. It was then that she realized that he hadn’t talked too much about himself in the span he had been in her cabin.

“I would love to meet this brother of yours, he sounds like a sweetheart.” Her tone was half joking, but the skeleton’s eyes brightened incrementally at her words.

“he is, normally. but i always manage to catch him on his bad days, too, but I guess that comes with the territory, siblings.” He shrugged, settling back into his seat.

“You have not mentioned why you decided to move up here,” She reminded. She watched the skeleton’s cheeks flush with a color that wasn’t from the cold, likely embarrassed about how he had gushed. He took a sip of the hot chocolate, turning his eyelights to the side. Toriel wasn’t about to guess how he managed to drink anything, being a skeleton and all.

“uh…well…i feel kinda bad about dragging paps all the way up here, but i’m here doing a research expedition. my team is studying the aurora, how polar magnetism effects our atmosphere.” Toriel blinked. That…that was pretty interesting. He must have noticed a change in her expression, because he smirked, raising one eyebrow.

“yeah, well, that sounds scientific, but really we’re just shooting rockets up in the sky and takin’ a gander at the smoke trails. nothin’ too fancy.” He shrugged.

“Hush. That does sound very interesting. Have you had a chance to do any of your research yet? There have not been too many days where the northern lights have been visible recently.” Autumn in north Canaska meant snow and clouds, not much visible sky. Even less days when the lights stretched across the sky. She too, was awaiting a clear day to see the lights. Since moving backing onto her land, she had never grown tired of the greens and occasional purples that lit up the sky on clear winter nights.

The skeleton groaned.

“nah, that’s the worst part. the weather’s been crap since i got here so we can’t get proper readings unless it’s clear. and i only get a day’s notice to go and get myself ready for a launch.”

Toriel nodded, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

“Soon enough you’ll have clear skies,” she said.

“yeah…” he relented. He leaned back in the single chair she had in her cabin, while Toriel sat on her large bed.

“as for the ranger job, because i was linked with the research team, i was able to get it. i thought it would be an easier job than it is. just walking around, making sure the forest was in good condition, no poachers, no campers, yadda yadda. my old man made me take a camp counselor job after high school, and that seemed plenty of experience for them while they were short-staffed. but…hate to say this, but i ain’t the outdoorsy type.”

“I couldn’t tell,” she chuckled at his expense. He rolled his eyes, but smiled good-naturedly.

They chatted quietly for some time after that. Talking about his research project, back to the conversation about his brother, to some of the things he’d encountered in his one-week training with the ranger service. Sans—he had said his name was—cut himself off mid-sentence looking above her head, to where her clock hung. He then turned his wrist over, glancing at his watch.

“welp, tori, i should skele-daddle.” Toriel’s head turned to look back at the clock. 5:45pm.

“Oh dear, I am so sorry to have kept you so long!” she fretted. Her new friend was going to be late checking out of work.

“nah, it’s fine. after all, i got my shortcuts.” Toriel’s concerned expression didn’t waver.

“heya, so…this was really nice. i mean, really nice. i really gotta thank you for the soup and the hot cocoa. could i maybe…” he scratched his head over his fleece cap, “do this again sometime? so i can bring you something in return. my bro and i ain’t much for cooking, but i’m sure i could figure something out.” He shuffled his feet. She was still concerned over how he thought he was going to get back to the ranger station in time. She blinked.

“Sans, you can come back any time you wish,” she said, shaking her head, “you do not need to bring me anything. Your company alone is enough of a pleasant treat.”

“heh.” He picked up his snowshoes under his arm.

“i’ll consider that,” he said. Then, with a wink, he added.

“guess i’ll be seeing you, then.”

“Goodbye, sorry for making you late.”

“we’re magic, remember? i got my shortcuts,” he said, and with a snap of his fingers, which she was sure was for dramatic effect, he was gone in a blue flash and a crackling sound.

He could teleport.

Toriel laughed then, realizing that was the sound she had heard earlier.

* * *

 

The next three days went along like this, until Sans took his day off to meet with his research team. Trying to decipher weather reports to find the best time to launch their smokers, their rockets with smoke trails. In the meantime, they continued the preliminary magnetic measurements.

Over the three days he visited her, the sun was setting earlier every day by a noticeable amount, and it was pitch dark even with him slacking off, teleporting to various points of the trail rather than taking the time to walk and survey properly. He met a moose on the second day and just about had his soul jump straight out of his chest. Big monsters? No problem. Enormous antlered, razor-hoofed, brainless death machines? Nope. He’ll pass on making friends with that. He still needed to record the sighting of the moose and its coordinates, but he could do that from a teleport to 15 meters up a tree.

It gave him something to talk to Toriel about though. He really, really enjoyed talking to this giant _~~beautiful~~_ woman. She was sweet, and he found out a good bit about her, like the fact that she baked, but that she needed to run into town for supplies on the next Tuesday. He’d finish his shift at various times, depending how much he was slacking off, and then visit his new friend, handing off a store-bought (frozen) muffin, and talk until just a few minutes before he was expected back at the station. She laughed at the muffin, since it was surely frozen solid by then, as well as from the delight of him remembering to try to return some of the favor. She was too kind for her own good, Sans thought…She sort of…felt like she was reluctant to talk about anything before she moved _back_ up here. Apparently, she had lived in Seattel for a while, but came back here…for some reason…whatever her reason, it seemed distressing, and she didn’t have to say anything. Must be a level four friend to unlock the tragic backstories, and he was pretty sure he was barely ghosting at level two.

Not that she had unlocked his, either.

It was nearly a week later when Sans returned to Toriel’s small cabin. She was nowhere immediately in sight. Then he heard the snow crunching off behind the cabin, along with a dim light. A horned head came around the corner.

“Hello, Sans. I was listening for the sou…oh…well hello there, you must be Papyrus,” she said, her gaze drawn to the skeleton standing directly behind Sans. He knew, aside from being skeletons, he and Papyrus didn’t look a lot alike. Papyrus was tall and had narrower features and Sans was…the exact opposite. They sort of looked like that movie with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger, where they were supposed to be twins.

“SANS! YOU WEREN’T LYING. YOU DO HAVE A FRIEND.” The grin Sans wore at seeing his friend’s face immediately dipped. He wouldn’t be so embarrassed if his bro’s voice _didn’t carry to the ends of the earth._ Toriel even looked to be laughing lightly as she approached the pair.

“thanks for the vote of confidence, bro,” Sans muttered.

“anyways, you, uh…said you wanted to meet my brother, and he said he wanted to meet you so…”

“MAY WE USE YOUR KITCHEN? YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UNTIL YOU HAVE EATEN ONE OF MY FANTASTIC MEALS!” Papyrus interrupted, holding up a reusable shopping bag. Neither had a full day of work today, for as it would seem, even this far north, there was still a singular night church that half of Deadcow attended on Sundays. Even with the early off, they had dipped into the ‘near-twilight at all hours’ point of the year up in Canaska.

“I WAS DISTURBED TO HEAR THAT MY THOUGHTLESS BROTHER TRIED BRINGING A STORE-BOUGHT MUFFIN TO SUCH A GRACIOUS HOST. ONLY TO HAVE IT FROZEN BY THE TIME HE ARRIVED! I LOOK TO REMEDY HIS BLUNDER, MISS TORIEL.” Papyrus dipped his head, nearly bowing to Toriel.

“Papyrus, you do not need to do that. The muffin was quite alright once it thawed…but, yes, I would be happy to let you use my kitchen.” Sans sighed. She’d definitely be in for a surprise, not so much a treat, though. He’d been surviving on eating cold beans in out of a can with a spoon, leading Papyrus to suffer through the leftovers, as well. He swore the guy couldn’t taste. Well, the taste wasn’t the problem, it was the that whatever he cooked had the completely _wrong_ texture.

Wait. He had even told Toriel or his brother’s culinary disasters, why was she allowing him to step foot in her kitchen? She should know what she was getting into.

Then again, she seemed to be helping Papyrus in the kitchen. Bored, with nothing better to do, he went to help as well, subjected to the menial task of peeling and mashing the potatoes, something a six-year-old got excited to do around Christmastime. A thirty-year-old monster with a Master’s degree? Not so much excitement.

* * *

 

“SO. HOW IS IT?” Papyrus asked, expectantly, as Toriel and Sans pushed the food around on their plates. Toriel had helped cook and season the fish to the best of her abilities, but looking at it, Sans still wondered if he could _stomach_ it, despite her efforts. Toriel, it turned out, was the one with a death wish as she cut off a hunk of burnt halibut and brought it to her mouth. She chewed. Chewed. Nodded, and smiled.

“Oh, it…” Sans cocked a brow. He shoved a piece into his mouth and followed suit. He didn’t feel his soul crumbling, so he must still be among the living.

“it’s edible, bro, for once.” He smirked up at his brother as the taller rolled his eyes. Papyrus made himself a plate and sat beside his brother on Toriel’s bed, her having taken the chair, scooting the small table she had between them.

“Well, I was _rooting_ for you, after all,” Toriel said, holding up a leftover potato.

“oh, you _butter_ believe it, pap.” Papyrus sunk down in his seat suddenly.

“NOT YOU TOO, MISS TORIEL!” Papyrus groaned.

“I would like to make it though a single meal, for once in my life, without the overused food puns,” Papyrus said in an uncharacteristic utterance. Sans threw an arm around his shoulders.

“aw, c’mon. we don’t mean anything by it. tori’s just…happy to _meat_ you!”

“SANS!”

* * *

As they cleaned up their dishes, which Papyrus had insisted they do and let Toriel off, since she was their host, Sans couldn’t help but notice the way Toriel looked at the two of them. She wore a gentle, pleasant expression, but again…it was somehow wistful…she really was lonely out here in the woods, wasn’t she? Except her biweekly trips into town for basic supplies and trade, she was pretty cut off from the rest of the world. Not to mention the fact that monsters were pretty scarce in the town. She probably didn’t see another monster for months at a time. Not that humans were any less companionable than monsters, but he knew the feeling too, it was just easier to get along with someone you could relate to, at least in part, at a level that deep.

Granted, they were two very different monsters. He was small, and all bones, and she was, just this…incredible monster. Tall, with strong arms, and long eyelashes, a graceful curve to her horns, beautiful eyes like sparkling garnets and—

Sans faced back around, face glowing, when he noticed Toriel looking up from where she was scraping rust off of some old tool of hers.

Nope. No. Nope. there was no way that could end well. Sans needed to get ahold of himself. He'd already accidentally flirted with her the second he saw her on the very second time he met up with her, so he  _definitely_ wasn't going to continue along that line of thinking.

No matter how wonderful she seemed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay...it'll be one or two more chapters. I've actually got a very slight plot to this story...very slight.


	3. out of this world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans sees the northern lights for the first time.

It was nearly December by the time Sans heard good news back from his research team. Lloyd, the unfortunate human given the task of pouring over weather reports and estimated aurora timelines had finally estimated a few clear days’ time for them to get everything together and set up for a launch. They couldn’t really set up beforehand, the cold would wreck the rockets and equipment. In the meantime, Sans had been visiting with Toriel pretty regularly. Not every day, since sometimes he felt more exhausted than others, and he didn’t want a repeat of the time he had fallen asleep on her bed, curled up in her sheets (which smelled so, so much like her).

Today when he finished up his shift, he found Toriel further in onto her property than he had been, making him walk in those clumsy snowshoes to find her near a larger, yet much more run-down cabin. The light from her fire magic leading his way, allowing him to click off his flashlight. He found her under the front of a pickup truck, and he hunched down under to greet her face-to-face.

“Hello, Sans,” she mumbled, taking off her rubber gloves and rolling out from under the truck.

“You’ve come at a poor time, I am just about ready to head into town for supplies.” She stepped around the truck, where her fire magic was heating it enough to get the fluids working once again.

“oh, uh, sorry…i guess i just came to tell ya that i won’t be around for the next few days…we’ve got a good weather report starting tomorrow, so…” He rocked back on his heels, hands buried deep into his pockets. He was sort of…hoping he could spend a little time with her before he was neck deep into a pile of data and arguing with his colleagues again. She really had become a part of his routine. Her soft voice was one of the nicer things up this close to the arctic circle. There was ice and snow, rocks, animals that could snap his spine with a single bite and—well, Toriel could probably break him easier than any of those animals—but Toriel was something special. From the moment she had offered him that thermos, he knew she had a unique sort of kindness, on top of unparalleled strength (he knew that from the time she had carried a whole fallen tree away from where it had broken part of her fence) and a playful demeanor. Women like her didn’t come along very often.

_stop that._

“Oh…perhaps you could come along with me? It will not be exciting, but the drive into town is better with compan—”

“sure,” he interrupted.

Toriel loaded a few last bundles of firewood into her truck bed and the two of them climbed inside. She started the truck without issue, the warmth of her fire magic doing its job and they started down the long, winding road into town. To any human who might have seen them, the fire in the cab of the truck might have been alarming, but to Sans, it was cozy, just the right temperature, so that he even unzipped his coat.

The next thing he knew, something was rubbing against his arm.

“Sans…” Toriel whispered, “Sans, you will get cold if you stay in the truck,” he stirred when he felt soft fur brushing up against his cheekbone. He leaned into that touch, lifting his hand to hold whatever soft object that was to his face. He opened his eyes, thumb stroking whatever fluffy bit of fur felt so nice against his cheek. It took him a moment to remember where he was, and a moment more to glance to his left. It was dark in the cab, only lit by the single overhead light in the parking lot, but the expression on the other occupant’s face…

He pulled her hand away from his face with a forced cough. Without her flames lighting up the inside of the car, there was no hope of distracting her from the magical blue glow that spread across his skull. Boy, did he wish he was the sort of monster with actual blood in that moment. Judging by the expression on her face as she pulled her hand back, she was flushed as well, but under that fur, and in the dim light…

“i-i’m up…” he muttered, yanking his hood up in a pathetic attempt to cover his face. It also cut off his view of her, allowing him to take a deep breath.

“sorry i wasn’t much for conversation the trip out here, heh,” he said, forcing a laugh this time. There was a pause.

“Oh, that is quite alright. The store will still be easier with two people.” She opened the car door, and Sans followed suit. He hissed as he stepped out into the minus fuck-all conditions, feeling all the colder for the warmth of that cab (and the warmth of her paw on his face). He glanced at Toriel as she rounded the bed of the truck. Her fur must be thick with the northern winter, she was wearing that flannel shirt, reminiscent of a lumberjack, with just a fleece jacket over it, not even zipped all the way. She easily hefted five bundles of wood out of the back of her car, only limited by her wingspan, Sans, meanwhile, attempted to carry one in each arm and gave up, carrying one, following Toriel out.

Turns out, most of the wood wasn’t towards actually heating people’s homes, but rather, people enjoyed cooking with the wood. Toriel left the wood with a twenty-something Sans recognized from his apartment complex. She worked at the cannery. She greeted Sans but looked at him with the same inability to remember their neighbor’s name that Sans had. He and Toriel made a few more trips for the wood, Toriel getting payment from the last load she had made selling wood two weeks ago before they could finally go into the store.

She started in the grain isle, picking up some feed for her chickens, asking if Sans needed to pick up anything for home. Papyrus did the majority of the shopping, so Sans was never sure of anything, but he picked up some batteries for flashlights nonetheless. With snow on the ground, it seemed lighter than it was, but having a flashlight on hand still made the deeper parts of the forest easier to navigate. She picked up quite a bit from the store then, him and Toriel both pushing a cart. Suddenly Sans questioned where she got money from. As far as he knew, she hadn’t mentioned a job, nor did she ever seem to be working on anything but maintaining her property and her chickens whenever he came for his afternoon visits. Surely she didn’t sustain herself just on the firewood she sold? Living this far north was ridiculously expensive, he and Papyrus both worked to go towards their studio apartment, which didn’t even have a proper kitchen, as Papyrus had been muttering to himself over since day one.

He wasn’t going to ask. Maybe she’s living off stocks or something. She did pay using a debit card, after all.

* * *

 

They loaded up the back of the truck, throwing a tarp over Toriel’s purchases, while Sans held his single shopping bag in his lap. When Toriel started the truck back up, she looked up to notice something rather interesting about the night sky. Stars were broken up by a few scattered clouds, but beyond that…

“Sans. Look up. At the sky,” she urged. Sans didn’t hesitate to glance up from where he was watching the road out the window. Sans went completely still for about thirty seconds, just staring up at the sky as green tendrils swam between the clouds. Then Toriel saw Sans look back at her from the corner of her eye. His eye sockets were wide. He looked back up at the sky, leaning forward in his seat to see more of the sky through the windshield.

“what the fuck,” she heard him whisper to himself.

“holy shit. oh my god. i’ve seen video of them but…holy mother of mary…” She stopped the truck then, before they would drive through a patch of trees that might obscure his view. She parked the car and got out, looking up into the sky for herself. The lights were truly mesmerizing, green and glowing, like a great ancient monster’s magic, on a scale so large it seemed to encompass the world as she knew it. She turned back to Sans to see he was still in the cab, staring up into the sky from behind the glass. She laughed, tapping on the window.

“This must be your first time seeing them.” Sans blinked, looking over at her before scrambling out of the car himself.

“the lights…move. quicker than i realized. i knew seeing them was supposed to…take your breath away but man…i don’t even have actual lungs.” He chuckled at that.

So they stood out there, watching the lights for a few minutes, before Sans could finally tear his eyes away from the spectacle long enough to climb back in the warm cab of the truck. Toriel climbed back in, but when she turned the truck back on, and saw the time on the display, she gasped.

“Sans, it is close to six, that trip took longer than I anticipated. Should you not be going home now?” Toriel asked. Sans flipped over his wrist. 5:57pm. Cutting it a bit close there.

“huh. i guess i gotta go tori. i’ll uh, see you in a little while.”

“Goodbye, dear friend. I will see you in a few days.”

Sans vanished with a blue burst of light and that same electric sound she had gotten used to upon his arrivals. She put the car back into gear and continued down the winding road into the forest she called home. It truly was a boring ride into and from town, and while true, Sans had fallen asleep almost the second he got to the car the trip there, the presence of another person made her more…comfortable. He had a very slight, whistling snore through his nasal passage, letting her know he was right there beside her as she drove down into town.

She turned the corner to drive down the dirt road, now more of an ice road, which she took slowly. As she pulled up to her carport, she noticed something in the distance. She laughed when she realized it was the skeleton in that familiar green ranger uniform. She kept eye contact as she pulled all the way in.

“Well, hello, stranger. What business have you on my property?” She said, attempting a straight face.

Sans rocked back and forth on his feet, shrugging his shoulders.

“well, i dunno miss. what sort of a gentleman leaves a lady to carry such a heavy load in by herself?” He tilted his head, giving her a sort of cheeky half-grin. There was something about that smile, something about the way he looked at her that often stirred up some long-forgotten feelings in her soul when she met his eyes. Something about him when his smile was softer, not forced, that made her feel like a much younger woman. Having thought that, she shoved those feelings down back into the farthest recesses of her mind. Sans was an acquaintance, a friend, maybe. Someone to fill the quiet out here alone in the woods this year, nothing more.

That was terrible. Sans was more than that. More than just an object to fill an empty space in her soul. He was sweet, a terrible but compulsive liar and jokester. He was a living person, with his own thoughts and feelings. Feelings which, from the look he was giving her, he might…perhaps…return?

_No. That was silly_. She was a silly old lady. He was a charming young man. Besides, she had tried love once in the past, and it had ended poorly.

“already called pap saying i’d be a while and clocked out. but really. i didn’t wanna make you carry all this in on your own in minus oh-god-why degrees.”

* * *

 

When they were done unloading the groceries and equipment, Toriel called him back down from staring at the sky. It really was an incredible sight.

“Sans, I come in, I don’t want you standing out in the cold forever.”

Sans shook his head, looking back at the larger monster, again stuffing his hands in his pockets.

“nah. ‘bout time i head back, can watch the sky just as well out the window at home.” Toriel took his hand at that moment and he gave no resistance as she tugged him back inside. What was she doing? He watched as she let go of his hand to close the door. She walked over the space to the side of her bed, reached up…and pulled down a ladder. He had never noticed until that very moment, but Toriel had a storage loft in her cabin. He blinked. She stood by the side of the ladder, gesturing for him to climb up. He raised a suspicious browbone, wondering if she was trying to get him back for all the goat puns. He trusted her enough to climb up, slowly. As soon as he got up, he noticed the flat sheet of glass in her roof. It was snow-encrusted, but it was a skylight. He threw a curious look down to her, before climbing up the rest of the way. The little loft was just tall enough for him to stand on his knees without worry of bumping his head. There were a few boxes and some extra bedding up here, but it was mostly clear.

He heard the ladder creak as Toriel climbed up afterwards, and he scooted to the side. She had to hunch over to crawl to the skylight, but she flipped the lock and opened the glass, pounding on the glass to loosen the remaining snow. Using fire magic to dislodge the ice, she closed the glass once again, locking it.

“I like to lay up here when the northern lights are visible. With a nice cup of cocoa or—oh! It is a special occasion, is it not?”

Sans tilted his head in confusion as she crawled past him and back down the ladder.

“a special occasion?”

“Yes!” she said when she returned with two mugs and…a bottle of wine. Sans laughed at that.

“It is your first time seeing the lights in person.” Sans smiled warmly as he took one of the mugs. They rearranged the extra blankets into pillows so they could recline partway to watch the aurora through the window. Sans supposed that when your house was heated with fire magic, concerns of insulation went onto the _back burner._ He took a sip of the wine, noting it wasn’t as bitter as he expected. It wasn’t bad.

“Even when I was living in Seattel, I insisted on having a skylight in my house. I have always adored the stars and the night sky.”

“understandable,” sans said, taking another sip, “they are pretty… _out of this world_.” He smirked as Toriel let out a snort with her surprised laugh.

“Yes, I would agree. Did you come up with that just now, or did you have to _plan-et_?”

They carried on like that for some time, exchanging jokes, drinking wine and enjoying each other’s company. That is, until Toriel said something strange. She was more than a mug of wine ahead of him by that point, but she was a larger monster, when she let it slip.

“Oh, I always wished I had the chance to bring Asriel and Chara here when they were little.”

“asriel and chara?”

“My childre—” she cut herself off abruptly. Sans’s eyesockets came open at that.

“oh. you’ve got kids.” He didn’t know why that thought gave him a constricting feeling in his stomach. It was stupid, really. So, she had a past relationship. It happens. He’d had a couple, too. Hadn’t fathered any children, since that typically required a type of commitment neither he nor his partners had been ready for, way back then. Where…where were her kids, though?

“Yes…” she swallowed thickly. “I have…had two children…” well…that was a weird way to refer to them, but, if they were grown then they wouldn’t be children anymore, he supposed. She really didn’t look old enough to have children but…if she had them young, say 18…and if they were now 18, then…yeah, she’s probably about 36.

He watched her brush away a tear then, and Sans’s eyes opened wider with sudden concern.

“I am sorry friend,” she whispered.

“no, no. it’s fine…i uh…i shouldn’t have—”

“Nonesense…you could not have known…” she trailed off.

“I lost both of them ten years ago. Asriel was eight, Chara was nine. It is…a very long story. But their loss is why I moved back up here. My husband, well, my ex-husband and I…you understand how something like that can break two people apart. Here, where my family visited during the summers, well, there’s no memory of my life after I married Asgore, or the children I lost.” Sans was bordering on uncomfortable. That. That all sounded terrible.

“i’m sorry, tori.” He set his cup down and grasped her large hand in both of his, squeezing gently, bare phalanges against warm fur.

“that all sounds…really rough. i’m sorry you had to go through that.” Sans really, _really_ wasn’t a touchy-feely guy but…dead kids, man.

“Oh, hush,” she said suddenly. She squeezed his hand back. Sans felt his face warm incrementally. Now was _not_ the time.

“It was ten years ago. It feels like a world away. I will not forget them, but I had many pleasant memories of them as well.”

“do you want to talk about them?”

Toriel looked as if she were rolling that thought around in her head for a while before she knocked back her mug of wine, finishing it off.

“No, but I would love to hear another story about Papyrus and yourself. Of the two of us, you are the better storyteller.” Sans could understand her need for a distraction in that moment. He thought about it for a moment. He took his hands away from hers then, touching a knuckle to his chin.

“well, when pap was eleven, I helped him make his own Halloween costume. he loved that thing. kept wearing it even after the holiday was long over.” He went into that story. Then another. He could honestly go on for hours like this, but the wine was starting to get to him. After he’d finished his most recent story, he swished what was left of his cup.

“y’know, i should probably cut myself off now. gotta get everything together early-ish tomorrow.” Toriel giggled, having obviously had more than enough to benefit from the buzz. She took his cup from his hand then.

“Well, I certainly do not have to be anywhere tomorrow,” she said, taking a sip off of his cup. Sans smirked, while, inwardly, years of the indirect kiss trope from various anime was catching up to his soul, squeezing it.

“goodnight, tori.” He almost chuckled when she gently patted his face. She’d had her fare share, for sure.

“Goodnight, Sans,” she whispered, the patting suddenly turning into a gentle hold on his mandible, bringing his face closer to hers. Too close. Sans held his breath as his eyes widened.

He disappeared with an electrical noise and a flash.

And so Toriel was left to her thoughts for the next week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it-refused. I kinda ran with this prompt and made it my own. I hope that's fine, haha. It was more of an inspiration than a prompt. Also, I'm posting this at 4am so...I'll edit it later. This turned into a longer chapter than the last two.


	4. why the long face?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some terrible talks with Alphys, who wants nothing more than to meddle in other people's lives, not her own.

As Toriel hung her feet off the landing, she also hung her head. She finished off the bottle of wine, already having made her poorest decision of the night, more alcohol to disrupt her decision making processes couldn’t make it worse.

How could she? That poor skeleton must have been so uncomfortable, having her throw all that at him, things he should not care to know about her, and then have her try to kiss him, just because she was feeling vulnerable in that moment. Even if there had been some sort of interest in her, it was certainly dashed the second she gave her circumstances for her decade-long self-exile. She was just some washed up divorcee, broken since the death of her…her children…it was her own fault that she felt vulnerable in that moment, that she had found comfort in his hands squeezing about hers. Yet, that was more a placating, friendly gesture, she should not have read into it as she had.

She could still feel the quiver of his jaw as she held it. Her grip had been much too firm, he had to yank himself out of her grip in order to get away from her.

As she crawled down from the loft, she curled up in her chair, knowing she would not be able to sleep that night. She tried to settle into a book, but she had scoured over her small collection far too many times, some books she knew by heart. Her mind was still swimming with the thoughts of that night. From her transgressions towards that poor young skeleton, to the memories which had spurred her sorrowful thoughts to start with.

* * *

“Ge-geez Sans, you look really rough,” a voice said from the other end of the video chat. Sans scrubbed at his eye sockets as he let out a weary chuckle. This was the only place with any sort of reliable internet in the entire town.

“you look great before your second cup of coffee, too.” With that, he tipped his mug.

“No, I m-m-mean it-t-t. Did you sleep at all last-t-t night?”

“al, i thought you said you went through speech therapy, your stammer’s gotten worse.”

She huffed, rolling her eyes. She took a deep breath, then paused, looking like she remembered something.

“S-Sans?”

“yeah?” Sans mumbled through a bite of hot pocket. He watched the yellow dinosaur monster in the monitor tap her claws anxiously, but chose not to comment on how she looked a tad more frazzled than usual.

“Th-this message you s-s-sent me? Why d-do you want to know what k-k-kind of books I like?”

Sans swallowed, and took a second to think of a lie before he shrugged, deciding on the truth.

“i’m tryna get tori somethin’ for chrismas. she loves reading but her collection of books is pretty sparse, and the books are pretty old looking, like she’s read ‘em all a million times.”

“Ohh…T-Toriel…” The yellow monster became visibly more nervous, making Sans squint with suspicion. He leaned forward in his chair, holding his jaw on his hand. He tilted his head.

“Th-this Toriel? White ears, horns? Over seven feet-t-t-tall?” Sans smiled at the description. Yeah. She was an amazing woman. Big, strong, hardworking, and with a sweet tooth…

“Sh-she didn’t happen to look like th-th-this, did sh-she?” A new image box opened in the messenger app, and Sans had to wait a few seconds for it to load. When it did, the image that came up nearly took his breath away. It was her alright. But it was her, sitting for the camera, a soft smile on her face, fur smoothed and soft, a pretty scoop neck dress in a violet color, a garnet pendant hanging between her collarbones, and similar earrings to accentuate those soft white ears of hers. She looked downright elegant.

_Get you a girl who can do both._

Not the time for memes. Okay, so he's said 'it's always time for memes' in the past, but he didn't really _meme_ it. Heh.

“yeah, that's her...uh, gotta ask? where’d ya get this picture? she got a myface account or something’?” Toriel didn't seem the type for social media. Heck, she didn't have a computer as far as he knew, nor did she have a cellphone. (She looked like a gal who could handle herself in the woods, so that wasn't a huge concern, he figured). Maybe she had made one long ago, before she moved up here. Before her kids...

He watched as Alphys began tapping her claws together in a more frantic way than before. She coughed once, as he way of clearing her throat.

"Oh, Sans. I th-th-thought that might be the case. Um. This T-Toriel is um. She um...Well, her last name would be Dreemurr."

"uh, dreamer? that s'posed to mean something to me?" He watched Alphys slap a hand over her face. What had he said?

"If you kept up with the t-times, honestly, Sans. He's running for reelection this year."

Sans blinked. He was not connecting any sort of dots, here.

"Toriel is the wife of Asgore Dreemurr! As in Governor Dreemurr! W-w-well I suppose she's the former wife of Asgore, although I'm not so sure that the divorce was ever finalized but their split was public and god it was so tragic after they just lost their two kids, I know a lot of people tended to demonize her for leaving the state, but I just feel awful for her, for both of them. Before they ever got married though, she was the daughter and one of the two heirs of the Boss company which as you should know just came out with a new product which is doing really well under--"

"alphys what the heck." Sans's sockets were wide as he attempted to grasp this information through the personal statements and the mile a minute way of speaking that his friend had when she was excited.

"Oh!" Alphys jumped, startled and quickly flushed orange in embarrassment, "I'm sorry, I did it again!"

"it's f...fine i guess but...geez...i uh..." Sans sat back in his chair, rocking back and forth a little.

"What I'm saying is that...Sans, Toriel is p-p-practical royalt-t-ty. Who knew she'd be living out th-there in the woods after all that time? Although her family d-does own a bit of property out there...Sans, I don't know...how you feel about her but? If you...Well, this is hypothetical but..."

"You're saying it'll take more to woo her than just a book?"

"Sans, you know, I know that you're a g-g-great person, but you're also kinda...well, you don't um...Asgore Dreemy--DREEMURR is um..." She flushed brighter at the slip, burying her face in her hands. "gee al, when the hell did you become such a great flatterer?" Sans's smile tightened. It normally didn't bother him when people called him lazy. He really wasn't. He worked hard, but he definitely wasn't putting more energy into anything than was necessary. With Toriel, so far, it had been so easy. So what if he wasn't some big huge guy who could sweep her off her feet or--well, whatever Asgore had going for him. Big, handsome, rich, charming...crap. Don't do that.

Well, he also knows something that Alphys didn't.

"trust me though, i ain't buying a book to win her over, that's stupid. i'm just getting her a christmas present, that's all."

Sans smirked.

"i know she already likes me though and...it's nice, knowing."

Alphys peeked at him through her fingers.

"H-h-how can you be so sure?"

Sans's face warmed a little, the memory was a little foggy, but it was clear enough.

"you know i got a knack for reading people and uh...well...uh, she uh..." color rose to Sans's cheeks like a flustered schoolgirl's, "she tried to kiss me the other night." Granted, she had three and a half glasses of wine in her by then, but they always say that alcohol only makes us act on the kind of thoughts we already had within our heads. She’d shown other signs too, Sans had just been too embarrassed and caught up in his own feelings to recognize them.

Alphys's hands dropped away from her face.

"She KISSED you?"

"well uh...no...but she was definitely going for it." Sans tucked down further into his lab jacket.

"Wait, what? What happened to stop her?"

Sans was trying to disappear into his hood by this point.

"...i did..?"

Oof. By now he was remembering the way he had kicked himself when he'd popped back into his apartment. Oh yeah. And the guilt. That was pretty hard to ignore too. The fact that he'd just left her hanging like that. That she had tried to express her feelings in the little physical manner and he had just smashed the moment with his hurried departure. He'd already been through the five stages of loss during the minor hangover he'd had. He'd basically denied her feelings and...God, she probably felt horrible. It wasn't like he could put the incident out of his mind but now that he was considering it more. He had really screwed up. She might have thought he didn't return her feelings. He did, he was just startled by her face directly in front of his face. He was typically pretty emotionally constipated, and damn was he constantly kicking himself for that.

"You had the chance to k-k-kiss the woman you love, and you stopped-d-d her from kissing you?!" Alphys seemed almost outraged by this information. As if it were some anime on her computer she were screaming at.

"i wasn't even really sure what i was feeling, then she got close and i panicked, okay? it's too late to change it."

"It's not too lat-t-te to fix it though! Have you t-t-talked to her at all s-since then?"

Oh crap. Welp. Now that he was thinking about it...It really, really couldn't wait, could it? He might have a few degrees under his belt, but he was still a huge idiot.

* * *

 

Toriel ran her hand through the fluffy feathers of her singular black hen. The chicken closed her eyes to the touch, clucking when Toriel took her hand away.

"Bye, girls," she gave as she shut the door to the coop. The youngest hen was having a hard time with being more _cooped_ up than usual with the colder winter, but Toriel knew it was just far too cold to let her girls out right now. As soon as there were more hours of daylight, she'd start leaving the door open again. She sighed, as she walked back to her small little cabin. Before she reached the porch, she looked out at the larger cabin on the property. This one she lived in how she had built after her exile. The larger cabin had been the one her family had always stayed in when she was a child, and the one she had hoped to stay in with her own children some day. Living in it hadn't been a long-term option. It just made her depressed without someone else to occupy the rooms. Her cabin here was just big enough for a silly old lady like herself.

A lonely old lady.

She thought back to the skeleton she so adored. In her drunken state, she had…well, she thought back to the fleeting moments where she felt some comfort and warm around him, and even his brother. Her little cabin was crowded, and full of life. She had once considered fixing the old siding on the larger cabin so that the brothers could stay over, and keep her company through the night. Especially Sans. That was a silly, selfish thought.

She’d had the worst dream the other night related to Sans. Not a nightmare, and the dream was rather pleasant, during, but immediately after waking, Toriel had felt shame and guilt wash over her. In the dream, Sans was holding a baby, wrapped in a striped crochet blanket. Toriel walked quietly towards Sans, sitting in the windowsill, sunbathing along with the infant, wildflowers visible just outside. She came closer and Sans turned his head, that ever-present grin widening, and it was then that Toriel also saw the face of the child. A skeleton with small rounded horns adorning their crown.

It was a horrible, selfish dream. She frowned, gripping the wood of her porch support. She felt so stupid. She knew Sans had over a week of work at the makeshift lab, and that it why he had left her for these long days. But she wondered if he would ever return. She had made a complete fool of herself. She was a grown woman, and she should really begin acting like it.

“heya there. why the long face?”

Toriel’s head jerked up with the sound of that familiar voice. She spun around, and spotted that fluffy green coat, furry hood concealing the wearer’s face. The height and posture of the figure left no doubts about their identity, however.

Nor did the two shining eyelights staring up into her face, wavering slightly.

“Sans,” she breathed, followed by a very trivial, “Should you not be at work?”

“eh, there’s a lull in activity right now,” he said with a shrug, “waiting on the computers to process. But uh…” the barest of glows lit the face within the hood, allowing Toriel to see the nervous expression of the skeleton before her.

“i figured this was more important? we should probably have a talk?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter got too long so I split it in half. Dunno when I'll have time to finish the second half. RIP me. Although I have a job now, so that's nice.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm from Seattle, and I love this city, but this based in a fictional setting where I make up my own rules. Deadhorse is the name of a city in Alaska, and they're centered outside the fictional equivalent of that.
> 
> Don't invite strange men into your secluded cabin in the woods unless you are a seven foot tall boss monster who can use fire magic and swing an axe with the ferocity of a lioness protecting her cubs. Also, why is Toriel collecting wood if she could use fire magic? Don't know, don't ask.


End file.
